Iqaluit city councilor apologizes, clarifies botched FCM trip

Coun. Noah Papatsie said he was sent home during a layover in Ottawa en route to an FCM conference this past June after he mixed stress medication with a few drinks on the plane from Iqaluit: “I had a few on the plane and during that flight I felt uncomfortable. Like I said, I took some medication and I guess everything mixed together and I felt really more uncomfortable.” Papatsie says he apologizes to the community for what happened. (PHOTO BY STEVE DUCHARME)

Coun. Noah Papatsie has issued an apology and clarifications regarding events described in a recent article in Nunatsiaq News about the cancellation of his publicly-funded trip last June to a conference in Edmonton.

“There are issues that happened, and I would like to apologize to the community and the people I worked with,” Papatsie said in an interview.

Papatsie was responding to calls by fellow councilor Kenny Bell to publicly address his conduct this past June while on a city-financed flight to Edmonton for a major conference held by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

Due to reasons not entirely understood by the public, Mayor Mary Wilman — attending the conference along with Coun. Joanasie Akumalik— asked Papatsie to return home during a layover in Ottawa.

“I was going down [to Ottawa from Iqaluit] and during that whole process —during that night and that morning— I had a lot of meetings and I was pretty stressed at that time, but I did make it to the airport and I took some medication, I swallowed some, and off we went,” Papatsie said.

“I wanted to talk again, I wanted to talk about this situation and what we’re going to do during the trip to the FCM [Federal Municipalities of Canada] so, again, I was kind of disappointed. I asked if we were going to have a meeting and I didn’t get an answer so that stressed me out.

“I had a few [drinks] on the plane and during that flight I felt uncomfortable. Like I said, I took some medication and I guess everything mixed together and I felt really more uncomfortable.”

Papatsie said he found a place to stay overnight in Ottawa but wanted to continue on to Edmonton the next morning to join the mayor and Coun. Akumalik.

“I slept over in Ottawa and during that next morning I asked to see if I can tag along again, because during that day was only registration day [at the conference], so I still had time to go over there so, again, I was told I was not allowed to go anymore so I was told to go home. So I went home.”

Papatsie has since reimbursed the city for his return flight, and has also apologized in private to council members during a behind-closed-doors in-camera session.

“Again, we did everything properly, I co-operated properly again and I’m just kind of disappointed with how it ended because I’ve been wanting to publicly apologize too and its just been difficult to get through to our mayor and its been pretty hard.”

City council met for the final time before elections Sept. 22.

Papatsie, along with incumbent mayor Wilman and former mayor Madeleine Redfern, is a candidate for Iqaluit mayor in the upcoming municipal election Oct. 19.